Why Can’t College Students Write Anymore?

”They [the Boy Scouts] have a bad reputation.”

This is a ubiquitous opinion among young parents, from what I have been able to observe.

Maybe among hard core lefties. Scouting is still very popular among conservative families.

and usually use lower case "i" for myself to save time.

It's much easier than that. It's simply contempt and disrespect to the reader.

It's much easier than that. It's simply contempt and disrespect to the reader.

You are the only one to say this after thousands of post over many years.

The fact is that my fingers are so stiff that i hit the wrong key on about every 3rd or 4th word, and must do much correcting, and beside feeling uncomfortable even capitalizing references to myself, as if i was important, anything i can do to save time helps. And i would find no problem with anyone else using "i" for themselves, as it is no problem to see what it means.

Sorry if it offends you.

Shouldn’t it be anylonger?

You're correct. "Anymore" is a quantitative continuation whereas 'anylonger' is a temporal continuation. The whole excerpt demonstrates poor writing and composition skills.

Is it just me, or are student competencies like basic writing skills in serious peril today? Granted, I am about a decade in to my teaching career, but even within this fairly short span, I have noticed a startling decline in the quality of written work turned in by my students, regardless of which institution (community college, private, four year school) the papers are coming from.

Did a professor just end a sentence with a preposition?! I supposed that professing psychology entitles her to correct language. My corrections in bold:

"Is it just me, or are student competencies[,] such as ('like' suggests a simile, not a part of the matter itself) basic writing skills, lately imperiled? Granted, I am about a decade into (a single preposition, 'in to' requires a transitive verb) my teaching career, but even within this fairly short span, I have noticed a startling decline in the quality of written work turned in by my students, regardless of institutions (colleges public and private, two and four year schools) (because, in listing related items, a writer should introduce the object class common to all items in the list and differentiate in the progression) from which the submissions issue (because the papers are not 'coming from' colleges, as the sentence dictates, but are rather from students in college).

It’s not just that students aren’t demonstrating critical thinking skills in their writing, basic competencies like proper syntax, spelling, and even proper structure like paragraph indentation and how to cite sources are being done very poorly. Teachers have been reporting anecdotally that even compared to five years ago, many are seeing declines in vocabulary, grammar, writing, and analysis (e.g. Westin, 2013; Bloomberg News, 2012). Moreover, on an international scale, our standards in literacy is similarly on the decline (McGuire, 2014).

Not only is the first sentence merely a repetition of the introduction of the first paragraph, but it is, itself, introduced by the repetitive use of "it's just". A good writer will vary their sentence structure. This writer likes "like" so much that one like clause is embedded in another. Perhaps that's how they've come to overpopulate the article. The predicate "are being done very poorly" seems to take "proper structure" as its object, in which case they don't match. Since "Teachers have been reporting" that "many are seeing", I have to wonder if the "many" are teachers or whether teacher know of many who who are seeing this. The comma between "years ago" and "many are" would only make sense if there were also a comma between "ancedotely that" and "even compared" thus isolating the complete thought 'teachers are reporting ancedotely that they are seeing declines in...' from "even compare to five years ago". The author complains about student citation, apparently unaware of the great many citation formats which have currency among the various disciplines, and completely unaware that her own citations are improper.

There are only so many times you can correct a “their” that is meant to denote “there” before wondering, when was the last time this college student’s writing abilities were actually assessed? As a psychology professor, I am starting to feel like an English instructor, because so much of my feedback on these papers is focusing on such basic writing skills, that the coherency or theoretical merit behind the content is getting lost in the shuffle.

If "wondering" is supposed to introduce an inner monologue, the expressed thought should be contained in quotes. It should read as either:

"There are only so many times you can correct a 'their' that is meant to denote 'there' before wondering, 'when was the last time this college student’s writing abilities were actually assessed?'"

Or

"There are only so many times you can correct a 'their' that is meant to denote 'there' before wondering when was the last time this college student’s writing abilities were actually assessed."

"As a psychology professor, I am starting to feel like an English instructor" would only make sense if feeling like an English instructor were part of professing psychology. Perhaps she meant to write "Despite being a psychology professor...". She should try responding to a Psychology Today article through a clunky Free Republic html console.

In considering her question "why can't college students write anymore?", I would think that the proliferation of worthless psychology degrees, and the consequential overabundance of psychology professors, has a great deal to do with it.b

Yes. Her piece is replete with errors. I did not have the time to go through the whole piece as you did. Well done. Perhaps I should have added that her students are unable to write well because their teachers are unable to write well.

Have you ever seen the article diagramming the second ammendment and explaining its meaning grammatically? There are a few of them, a couple anti second amendment a couple pro.

Have you ever seen the article diagramming the second ammendment and explaining its meaning grammatically?

I've had the pleasure of watching Modern Language Association commies choke on their bile while admitting that the dependent "militia" clause was merely explanatory to, and subordinate to, the fully independent "right of the people" clause.

Okie doke. I am goping to have to ask that you allow me to contact you from time to time about gammar; ok?

My favorite grammar books are “Descriptive Grammar” House and Harmon and I love Sister Miriam Joseph’s “The Trivium.”